Iowa

300 apartment residents win $2.45M settlement in class action over bedbugs

Some 300 elderly and disabled residents of two apartment buildings in Des Moines, Iowa, have won an agreement to pay a $2.45 million settlement in a class action over bedbugs. It provides for each plaintiff to get between $200 and $6,000 over an infestation that created habitability issues, resulting in…

Apr 25, 2014 3:00 PM CDT

8th Cir. axes $900K verdict because lawyer told personal law school sex-harassment story at closing

A $900,000 jury award in an employment discrimination case, including $600,000 in punitive damages, has been reversed by a federal appeals court because a lawyer for the plaintiff during closing arguments told jurors that as a law student, she was sexually harassed by a professor. The anecdote by attorney Brooke…

Apr 7, 2014 9:10 PM CDT

Gun incident in courtroom prompts officials to consider a firearms ban, new security measures

Updated: A reported gun incident Monday in an Iowa courtroom is prompting officials to reconsider an unusual policy that allows authorized individuals to bring firearms into the courthouse. Sentenced to a 10-year prison term for possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, Cory Lee Daugherty, 29, argued with his attorney…

Mar 26, 2014 9:45 PM CDT

Falsified discovery requests lead to suspension for Iowa City lawyer

The Iowa Supreme Court has suspended an Iowa City lawyer for six months for faking discovery requests that he had forgotten to serve on opposing counsel. The lawyer, Jeffrey McGinness, was a member of the Iowa City Community School Board and a former national champion wrestler at the University of…

Mar 26, 2014 10:50 AM CDT

8th Circuit nixes suit by breastfeeding mom, says employer conduct wasn’t constructive discharge

A federal appeals court has affirmed a grant of summary judgment to the employer in a sex- and pregnancy-discrimination case, agreeing with the trial court that not having a lactation room available to the employee the day she returned from maternity leave and later having a department head encourage her…

Mar 17, 2014 8:40 PM CDT

A second state considers allowing its law-school grads to skip the bar exam

The Iowa Supreme Court will consider a proposal this summer that would allow graduates of Iowa’s two law schools to skip the bar exam if they practice law in the state. The grads would still have to pass an ethics exam, take a class on Iowa law and procedure, and…

Jan 14, 2014 11:45 AM CST

Top state court mulls proposal to let law students handle pro bono cases, seeks comments

In an effort to provide more pro bono services to those who can’t afford a lawyer, Iowa Legal Aid and the Office of Professional Regulation have asked the state’s top court to consider allowing recent law graduates and law students who have completed three semesters to handle some cases. They…

Jan 8, 2014 9:30 PM CST

Man blows nearly 6 times legal drunk-driving limit after passenger blows whistle

An Iowa man is facing a misdemeanor drunken-driving case after a passenger in his car told Iowa City police he drove off the road Friday and hit a street sign before making it home. Officers responding to the home of Levi B. Carter, 28, said he was too drunk to…

Jan 3, 2014 10:00 PM CST

Unwitting lawyer is suspended for arranging client loans to secure Nigerian inheritance

An Iowa lawyer who believed his client was due to inherit $18.8 million from a long-lost Nigerian cousin has been suspended for tapping clients for loans in a failed effort to reap the windfall. The Iowa Supreme Court suspended lawyer Robert Allan Wright Jr. for a year, according to the…

Dec 9, 2013 12:15 PM CST

U of Iowa to cut law school tuition 16 percent

The University of Iowa College of Law has announced that it is cutting tuition by 16.4 percent for students pursuing a juris doctor degree beginning in the fall of 2014. The cut will apply to entering and continuing law students who are residents of the state and to entering students…

Dec 5, 2013 7:50 PM CST

Ex-client can bring her new lawyer to legal ethics hearing for her old lawyer, top state court says

A woman who accused an Iowa lawyer of sexual misconduct while he was representing her and her husband has a limited right to legal representation at a legal ethics hearing for her former counsel, the state’s top court has ruled. Although legal discipline proceedings are confidential, “We conclude a person…

Nov 12, 2013 4:25 PM CST

Appeals court OKs former law student’s suit over claimed Drake U hostility to service-dog training

A former law student has gotten a green light from an Iowa appeals court to proceed with her suit against Drake University over the law school’s alleged hostility toward the service dogs in she brought to classes between 2006 and 2009. Under state law, those who use service and therapy…

Nov 6, 2013 6:15 PM CST

Contract attorney faces felony overbilling case, allegedly claimed over 24 hours on 80 work days

An Iowa lawyer is facing felony charges after allegedly obtaining nearly $178,000 in improper payments, between 2007 and 2011, for his work as a contract attorney for the state public defenders office. Ney McDaniel, 60, is charged with theft and fraudulent practice concerning his work in Clay County, reports Radio…

Oct 15, 2013 4:50 PM CDT

Blind applicants get gun permits in Iowa, officials say

You have to pass a vision test to get a driver’s license. But not to get a gun permit, at least not in Iowa, reports the Des Moines Register. State law bans officials from discriminating against the blind on the basis of their disability, and hence a gun permit cannot…

Sep 9, 2013 3:05 PM CDT

SCOTUS decision on mandatory life for juveniles applies retroactively, Iowa court rules

Saying the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision last year barring mandatory life sentences for juveniles can be retroactively applied in Iowa, the state’s highest court opens the door for dozens, possibly hundreds of cases to be reviewed. The case before the Iowa Supreme Court arose after Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad,…

Aug 21, 2013 8:11 PM CDT